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The Homeland Security Department has made small but crucial changes to the security of its employee verification program called E-Verify. The new security change will help combat identity fraud. It is also the first step toward a national verification system.

Right now, E-Verify is a pilot program. Only a few hundred thousand employers, a few states like Arizona and the federal government use it to check the immigration status of a prospective worker. In the past, it has missed more than half of illegal workers, but recently Citizenship and Immigration services added a safeguard that can block a Social security number that’s been used fraudulently. Muzaffar Chishti is an analyst with the Migration Policy Insittute.

"It is basically to reduce the probability of people using other people’s social security cards," Chishti said.

That has been one of the biggest challenges behind E-Verify, and this year, the system was introduced as a mandatory safeguard in the Senate’s immigration reform bill and in at least one House immigration bill.